What happened
During daylight hours under visual meteorological conditions, a Cessna on a scheduled passenger flight and a Piper traveling to a remote hunting camp collided at an altitude of approximately 1,760 feet mean sea level. The impact occurred over a remote region, and both aircraft were destroyed in the accident. The collision involved the four fatalities of the pilot and two passengers on the Cessna, as well as the pilot and one passenger on the Piper.
Post-accident investigations determined that the left outboard wing of the Cessna struck the right wing forward strut of the Piper while both aircraft were in level cruise flight. Neither aircraft was communicating with air traffic control, nor were they required to do so. No mechanical failures or malfunctions were identified in either aircraft that would have prevented standard operation.
Findings
Analysis of visibility and performance indicated that both aircraft would have appeared as very small, slow-moving objects to each other until roughly 10 seconds before the impact, at which point the other aircraft would have appeared to expand rapidly in size. While the aircraft were not obscured by cockpit structures for approximately two minutes prior to the crash, the Cessna was positioned near the bottom of the Piper's right wing and near its forward strut.
The lack of traffic collision avoidance technology was a significant factor, as the Cessland was equipped with ADS-B Out but the Piper was not. Neither aircraft featured a cockpit display of traffic information (CDTI). Had CDTI been present, visual alerts would have been available nearly two and a half minutes before the crash, and auditory alerts would have provided warning 39 seconds before impact. Investigators noted that the remote location likely led to a reduction in traffic-scanning vigilance. Additionally, while the autopsy of the Cessna pilot was inconclusive regarding natural disease due to the severity of injuries, it could not be determined if such a condition contributed to the event.